Nobody’s Child – Victoria Jenkins

On a damp October day, a body is found in an abandoned hospital, too burnt to be identified, but Detective Alex King knows that every victim is someone’s daughter or son.

Pushing aside her own troubles, Alex puts everything into finding the killer, but when someone else is found dead, she begins to suspect that the body in the hospital was just the first of many.

Just as Alex uncovers a heartbreaking link between the victims, she finds her own safety under threat. Is this a figure from her past hell-bent on revenge, or could the murderer be even nearer than she thinks?

Alex is running out of time. Can she catch the killer before they take another life, or will they get to her first?

Nobody’s Child was published on the 19th June 2018 by Bookouture. Many thanks to the publisher for inviting me onto this tour and for my copy of the book via NetGalley.

WOW! Now that is how you write a prologue and draw your readers in right from the start! There’s often a debate within the reading community as to whether to read the prologue or not – I am most definitely in the reading camp and I am of the opinion that you are missing out if you skip past this prologue!

Detectives Alex King and Chloe Lane are back and have one hell of a complicated investigation upon their hands when a body is found in a derelict hospital which has been burnt beyond recognition delaying a positive identification. When another body turns up in quick succession, the team have to determine whether these form part of the same investigation.

On a personal level, Chloe has moved out of Alex’s home and things are going well in her relationship. Chloe’s absence is making Alex feel a little lonely and when she arrives home to find it has been graffiti’d she starts to also feel uncomfortable – and possibly a little vulnerable not that she would admit that! Whilst Alex has her suspicions as to who the offender is, she is struggling to prove it.

What I enjoyed about this book was the exploration into Alex and Chloe’s friendship when they disagree on something which brings tension to both their personal and working relationship. This was an interesting side of their friendship, to demonstrate how they can rub each other up the wrong way and how they each deal with this tension.

I really liked the pace of this book and the fact that for most of the book I literally did not have a clue as to the perpetrator – the only point I started to get some suspicions is when Jenkins started introducing little snippets to get the reader thinking. All very cleverly and deliberately crafted by the author – this is helped by the number of characters and different families and connections within the book, it was difficult to try and establish the linkages and the red herrings which added to the overall mystery to the book. Jenkins has woven together the various strands very well and kept up with all the character storylines brilliantly.

I enjoyed books 1 and 2 in the series so started book 3 with high hopes – I was not disappointed, Nobody’s Child is another brilliant investigation from Alex, Chloe and the team. I hope this series continues for a long time to come 🙂

Victoria Jenkins lives with her husband and daughter in South Wales, where her series of crime novels featuring Detectives King and Lane is based. Her debut novel The Girls in the Water is an Amazon UK top 30 bestseller, and top 5 bestseller in the Amazon US chart.